MagnusGrey

[Skill-Eater 2] Chapter 0: Quick Recap

“Hello everybody, Edge here. Before we dive headfirst into my next adventure, I decided to pop in before the fourth wall came up and remind everyone what happened in volume one. I know that it hasn’t been all that long for some of you. But not everyone will read these books back-to-back, especially as the series gets longer.

“I was hoping that some of Trapper’s crew could join us for today’s recap, but they’re off on a hunt and weren’t available on short notice. Don’t wo...

[LotMG3] Chapter 82: Raptor

The beasts’ ambush took place in the blink of an eye, offering no warning of their presence until the moment their attack began.

A pair of tooth-lined jaws were poised to close around Devin’s head. Another set of claws was lashing out, ready to gut Veronica from navel to sternum. Not to mention the set that were inches away from tearing out Nick’s throat.

If this attack had occurred before their lengthy training session, the party would have taken serious injuries in that mo...

[Skill-Eater] End of Book 1 Wrap-up

Greetings everyone, we have officially made it to the end of volume 1. I hope that you enjoyed Edge's adventures and am thrilled to have had you along for the ride.

I am taking Thursday and Friday off to see my family and get caught up on editing. The chapter 0 recap will be on Monday, and chapter 1 of book 2 will come out on Tuesday.

Some structural changes are coming with book 2, most notably an adjustment to the release schedule. For book 2, I am going with a (significantly) lo...

[LotMG3] Chapter 81: Danger Above

Before the final word left V’s lips, everyone began racing for cover, looking for anything that they could put between themselves and the airships prowling above.

Everything changed in that moment. The colorful vessels that had seemed so wonderfully magical only seconds ago now exuded an air of menace. Their progress across the sky felt like the jaws of a trap closing around his neck.

Fortunately, the floor of the level was covered in dirt, and lush trees and tall ferns were pro...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 170: Epilogue

Setna ran her gaze across the entrance to the dungeon—every cell in her body alive with an intoxicating cocktail of danger and anticipation. Ruby and Jed, the other members of her crew, were standing watch on either side while she figured out how to break the seal barring their way forward.

As usual, Setna’s instincts had been right on the money. Her treasure-hunting senses had begun to tingle the moment that she’d spotted a strange growth just beyond the border of the Ivory Plain...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 169: Reveal

The next morning, Earl and Dialla called the crew in for a private meeting. They had already heard the broad strokes from Trapper, but they wanted the other hunters to add their own observations. After the team shared the full account of their journey, including what they’d witnessed from the Titan’s Nose, the mayor used her authority to set up another town-wide meeting later that evening.

After he left City Hall, Edge spent the rest of the morning walking through the settlement. He...

[LotMG3] Chapter 80: The Second Floor

When his senses unscrambled, Nick found himself standing in warm sunlight. He took a moment just to savor its proper yellow hue after his long stint underground, followed by a month of training on a planet with a lime green sun.

He stood there while his brain adjusted to the radically different color scheme, then turned his thoughts to the ordeal to come. He was ready to find out what challenge the Tower of Rizzen would throw at him next. To deal with enemies that were far more human th...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 168: Party

Edge wound up being the last person to arrive. He walked through the door and into a party that was in full swing. The air was filled with music, voices, and a variety of mouthwatering aromas. Someone had bought a magtech speaker, and a memory crystal that held a few thousand songs. That was a great pick. The team could enjoy the music during the party, and in general once it was over.

He put his box of goodies into the refrigeration unit, then took a seat between Sasha and Jum...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 167: Downtime

The next day, Trapper waited until everyone finished waking up on their own. Then she had the crew gather around the big table in the common area. She let them know that she was throwing a party that evening, to celebrate Edge joining the team and Riller and Violet binding their cores.

After telling everyone to find something to bring to the festivities, she kicked the hunters out of the lodge while she prepared a surprise for the party. Violet was the only exception, since Trapper need...

[LotMG3] Chapter 79: Ready to Roll

Now that they were done going over their abilities, the team discussed the state of their consumable items.

Nick still had one physical barrier and one energetic barrier, which he was saving for a pinch. Veronica had one web bomb left, and enough of her concentrated stamina potion to make four more doses before she ran out. On top of that, everyone still had one potion on them, bringing the team’s total to nine.

Shaun wound up taking ten instant meals, since he hadn’t had any ...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 166: Gains

The journey back to town was a study in contrast to the first half of their excursion. The crew was walking away from the borderlands, and every step they took lowered the odds of running into a stage-two beast. On top of that, thanks to the presence of the padamas, garax, and the cancerous blightlings, they hadn’t spotted a stage-one predator large enough to pose a threat.

On the way out, they had focused on speed and stealth. Now, they were so laden with resources that moving the wa...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 165: Return

As they walked, Jumo asked, “If we are the first people ever to lay eyes on those biomes, do you think that we can name them?”

“That’s a good point,” Trapper said. “I was so busy pondering the big picture that it never even occurred to me. Yes, Jumo. We might wind up in the history books, if we manage to survive the trip back. Since you were the one to bring it up, did you have something in mind?”

“I was thinking Jumo’s Vault for the crystal biome. As fo...

[LotMG3] Chapter 78: Joyous Reunion

When the world finished putting itself back together, Nick found himself standing in a concrete room that was about thirty feet on all sides, forming a perfect cube. After spotting nothing hostile within, or anything living for that matter, he let out a sigh of long relief.

Good. The System took me to a saferoom instead of teleporting me directly to the next floor. Hopefully, it will give us some time to catch up and plan out our next move before sending us out again. No sooner...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 164: Frontier

Wow. What a mindfuck.

While everyone absorbed the truth of Trapper’s words, they took turns peering through the spyglass—recording their observations so that they could report them to Earl, Dialla, and the rest of the settlement.

Now that he knew what he was looking at, Edge did his best to commit every detail to memory, since the information might prove vital to the town. The Titan’s Nose was only a few miles away from the borderlands. It was close to where the two...

[LotMG3] Chapter 77: One Last Farewell

As with all things, the good and bad alike, Nick’s training was not fated to continue forever. He kept on pushing himself as hard as he could, until at last, his final day with Rita arrived. He had worked harder over the last four weeks than at any other point in his life. Now it was time to take what he had learned and continue fighting for the future of his people. Of every creature that called the Earth home.

He awoke before dawn and stepped out of his bedroom, only to find Rita wa...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 163: Retcon

When the crew examined the garax’s corpse, they discovered one last surprise waiting for them. Lodged into the stump of its neck was a core-seed—a magical phenomenon that occasionally appeared when a stage-three beast died.

It took the form of a pearly white sphere as big as Edge’s fists that shimmered in every color of the rainbow. It was beautiful, but that wasn’t the reason why the item was so valuable. As its name suggested, a core-seed could be refined by an alchemist to cr...

[LotMG3] Chapter 76: Intermission: Sophia and Shaun

Sophia looked up toward the ceiling of the immense cavern, where a fierce battle was taking place high above her head. Darting between enormous clusters of glowing crystals protruding from the roof of an enclosure big enough to hold a thriving metropolis were four of her frostfury wasps.

The quartet of venomous insects was engaged in a dogfight with a trio of giant birds with shimmering silver wings. They reminded her of oversized eagles, although the burning claws were a dead giveaway ...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 162: Truth

When Jumo asked the question, everyone looked his way—faces wearing a complex mixture of emotions that Edge had no way of sorting out in that moment.

In that instant, the events of the past weeks came to a head. It left him with one last decision to make. Did he really trust these people? And just as important, did Edge want them to be able to trust him?

When he searched his feelings, he decided that he did. After everything he had been through—living beside the hunters while ...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 161: Saw

Edge returned to his body, which was still sailing through the air. He landed in front of the frost-rimed behemoth, alive with the electrifying thrill of victory.

The garax’s eyes were wide with horror. It was reeling from the shock from having its epic skill—its pride and joy and the core of its identity—ripped out of its core. Edge staggered back in a desperate attempt to open some distance, as his chains threw intimidating roar into his mouth. Although he had s...

[LotMG3] Chapter 75: Rapid Progress

Not long after, Rita judged that Nick was ready to face Kiki in the ring again, in another pure contest of blade against blade. His heart began to race when the combat doll picked up a sword that was a mirror to his own and took her stance in front of him.

Although Nick had been sparring with her for days by this point, it was different when he didn’t have his wand to open some space, or force acceleration to get out of the way. He was intimately aware that Kiki was stronger than he w...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 160: Mini

To Edge’s surprise, the skill perched atop the crystal hillock took the form of the garax itself. This bipedal dinosaur was only twice his size, but everything else about it looked just as lethal as the original.

He had never encountered an epic skill before and didn’t know what to expect. So far, each increase in rarity had magnified the power’s energetic presence, and its ability to resist the intrusion of his chains.

Some skills, most notably elemental blade 2024-12-04 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post